Earthships can be reasonable or expensive. A lot of it depends on you, of course.
My friends over at Off The Grid Build gave a the break down on what it cost them to build a global model Earthship. I think it might have been studio sized, but don't quote me on that:
Accounting
As of Dec 11, 2012, their build cost:
Total Supplies: $78,692.92 (including tax, excluding land)
Total Services: $33,125.69
Projected Project Total: $115,000 (including tax, excluding land)
While this may sound reasonable, you do have to consider that these guys are experts. At least from my perspective. When I watch them do plumbing, concrete prep, footings, framing and other stuff, I realize how much I don't know and how much I won't be able to do by myself. While I'm always willing to learn, I have to accept that I can't know everything or become an expert over night.
My very rough guess is that if you are anything like me, add $100,000 onto that bill for all the extra labour and contractors you will have to hire. Maybe more? With the cost of land, you could easily top $500,000. That would be a crazy mortgage payment for the average Joe.
The moral of the story is, the more you are willing and able to do yourself, the better off you will be financially. Not to mention, the less you owe, the faster you can pay it off and have freedom!
Why is land so expensive? Who 'bought' it first, and how much did THEY pay?
ReplyDeleteDepends on where you live. Where I am at, 3-5 acres, if you can find it, can easily run you $250,000+
ReplyDeleteThere are also plenty of places where you can get an acre for 2000.00 - 4000.00.
ReplyDeleteAlso your 100,000.00 estimates are EXTREMELY high.
Let me start out by saying that I did not read the Off The Grid article that you reference so I'm not exactly sure how they accomplished their build. Earthships are designed to be built from mostly recycled material that can usually be sourced from your surrounding community for free. For instance, tire shops will often give old, unusable tires away so that they don't have to pay to recycle or dispose of them. I've even heard stories of them paying Earthship builders to take the tires away. Will it take a long time to find all of the tires you need for your thermal mass wall? Yes, but it would be completely free at that rate. The shortcut is to obviously buy the materials in the quantity you need which may be exactly what those guys did. That's going to inflate your build cost significantly. With the proper amount of planning, time and help you can bring the cost of a build down to well below $115,000.
ReplyDeletejust a quick comment about water recycling.. All wonderful in the desert where you get little rain.. In areas where rain is much more plentiful.. skip the plumbing to recycle grey water in and back out.. it is a huge cost. Put in aquaponics which are also closed cycle, and give you enough food that you really can survive 12 months of the year from what you produce.. plus you get fresh fish.
ReplyDeleteOnce out of the urban area septic systems become the norm.. I wonder how the work in canada where you have such deep frost lines
What size of a home is this price range regarding?
ReplyDeleteAlso, will this include interior finish?
I bought 44 acres wth 3 bedroom size septic tank for 8k. But same day bought 37.45 acres just on a seperate ranch 10 miles apart but I paid 38k . So you can find land cheap. Both my lots have full water rights and even mineral rights. The cleanest water shell in 500 mile radius and my water table is only 75-100 feet down.. plus both ranches have clean ready to drink community wells . If u don't want to spend the 15k to get your own well up and running.
ReplyDelete